[Planetlab-users] Management Overlay Networks (MON)

[Jin Liang]

Dear PlanetLab users,
   We have been experimenting with a system called
Management Overlay Networks (MON). The goal of the system
is to facilitate distributed application developers and
deployers in the deployment and running of their applications
in an environment such as the PlanetLab. Different from
existing systems, we build on-demand overlay networks that
allow users to execute instant management commands such as
instant status query and software push (to be integrated).
On-demand overlays avoid the overlay maintenance overhead,
and do not require complex repair mechanisms. The latter we
believe is important for an environment such as the PlanetLab,
where node failures can occur frequently. More information
about MON can be found at http://cairo.cs.uiuc.edu/mon/index.html
   Our MON system is currently deployed on about 280 nodes on
the PlanetLab. The client software for overlay creation and
status query is available (in binary form) at
http://cairo.cs.uiuc.edu/mon/monclient.html. We will make the
source code available once the system reaches a more stable stage.
By making the software available now, we hope it could be
helpful to your use of or research on the PlanetLab. We'd also
appreciate it if you could provide some feedback and comments
on the system, or report any bugs you found while using the
software.
   Thank you very much for your time and attention!

Jin